


Let Go And The Beginning Will Become The End

by ElizabethOlsenIsMySpiritAnimal



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Background Relationships, Canon Divergence - Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Episode: s07e12 Victory and Death, Episode: s07e12 Victory and Death Spoilers, F/M, M/M, Movie: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Multi, On the Run, Order 66, Post Episode: s07e12 Victory and Death, Post-Order 66, Post-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Post-Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26410108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElizabethOlsenIsMySpiritAnimal/pseuds/ElizabethOlsenIsMySpiritAnimal
Summary: After surviving Order 66 and burying the 332nd, Ahsoka and Rex navigate the final hours ofRevenge Of The Sith.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 6
Kudos: 67





	Let Go And The Beginning Will Become The End

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LanaBenikoisBestGirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LanaBenikoisBestGirl/gifts).



> Always wanted to explore what happens after VaD, so here we are.
> 
> Also guess where the title comes from. Come on, guess!

//

“Where do we go from here?”

Standing before a line of helmets that represented the men who had once been her family, Ahsoka Tano looked up, and turned around, towards the Captain who no longer had a reason to command. “I don’t know.” She said, quietly, her lips trembling slightly as she held her sabers, unlit and grasped tightly, as if they could ward away the darkness that now surrounded her.

_How did it come to this?_

Everything had seemed so right, so reassuring, just a few hours ago. She had taken Maul into custody, returned to her Star Destroyer, set a course for Coruscant, and taken solace in the fact she could finally be with her family again. In her mind’s eye, she could see it, finally returning to the Temple, to say hello to friends she’d dearly missed. Sharing her nights and days with those she cared about, finally being able to experience peace after so many months on her own, with just herself and her thoughts for company.

And then, well, in an instant, it had all been ripped away.

 _What have I done?_ Gasped Anakin, over her link to him, before it had been eaten alive by darkness, not a natural kind of darkness, but a darkness that fed upon pain, upon rage, upon despair. She’d felt her master _break_ the bond between them, and still she could not tell if he’d broken it of his own volition or if Sidious had broken it for him.

_What have I done?_

_Something terrible has happened._ She’d said, to Rex, unaware of her own troops turning their guns upon her frame. She’d seen Rex drop his helmet, pull his blasters, heard him beg for her to stay away from him, even as his body betrayed him.

_Stay back!_

And now, here, in the ashes of a once-mighty warship, Ahsoka breathed out, and knew that the life she once had, had once aspired to have, was no more. Her friends were gone, dead or forced to serve Darth Sidious, who, with three simple words, had stolen away Jesse, Ridge, Coric, and she had no doubt that Cody, Bly, Gree, and all the other clones were gone, forced to watch as a _monster_ took their bodies for a joyride to kill the Jedi. All of them, those bright stars...gone, snuffed out in an instant, just like that. Master Plo, Master Windu, Master Secura, Master Kenobi-

“Ahsoka?”

-oh god, _Anakin._ “...Anakin.” Breathed Ahsoka, blinking her eyes and focusing upon Rex, who had crossed the distance to arms length. “We need to find Anakin. Obi-Wan, Yoda, _somebody._ We can’t...I can’t be the last one standing!” She gasped, the weight of the world coming crashing down upon her. 

“Hey, hey, Ahsoka, it’s okay.” Rex said, his voice hollow even to himself, as he caught Ahsoka, holding her as she sobbed into his shoulder. Even he knew it wasn’t okay, but if the empty platitude could alleviate her heartache just a bit, then he would happily spout off every single one he knew.

 _Oh Force, everyone I know is gone._ Thought Rex. Cody, Echo, Doom, Fox, Stone, Neyo, Bacara...Rex knew that were they not dead at the hands of their own generals, they would no doubt wish they were, if they even had the presence of mind to care. His time under the sway of that accursed Order had been a haze of anger and a desire to kill Ahsoka by any means necessary, and he was glad the chip was gone, so that he could _think_ for himself, as he had been meant to do.

Or not, if the chip was any indication.

“I was going to tell him I wouldn’t leave his side.” Ahsoka gasped, breath shaky. “Instead, I told him _good luck,_ as if he needed luck.” The Togruta looked up to Rex, her eyes meeting his. “Anakin, Obi-Wan, we need to find them!”

“Ahsoka, you and I know the generals are among the toughest sons-of-bitches we know, but if what they experienced was anything like us, they might have…” He trailed off, uncertain about finishing the sentence. Rex knew Anakin and Obi-Wan had survived a lot thrown their way, but between Ahsoka’s breathless exclamation that something terrible had happened to Anakin, and his knowledge that Cody was among the best and brightest clones...well, even he wasn’t sure if they were still alive and kicking.

“We have to try.” Ahsoka said, visibly steeling herself. “Someone out there was closer to the heart of all this, and knowing them, it had to be those two.”

“The Y-Wing is fully stocked.” Rex said. “I can pilot, you come up with a plan along the way?”

“Yeah, yeah. I can do that.” Ahsoka said. “...Utapau. Master Yoda said Obi-Wan was there. If we’re lucky, we might be able to find him.” 

“Seems like a good place to start. With any luck, the Y-Wing will give us some cover on at least a passing basis. We’ll blend in well enough to get close without being shot down.” Rex said.

“Then it’s settled. Let’s go.” Ahsoka said, placing her sabers back on her belt. “I was going to leave these here.” She said, after a moment.

“Maybe best to hold on to them for now.” Rex said.

“For now, I guess.”

//

“We’re coming up on Utapau.”

Snapping herself out of her healing trance, Ahsoka looked up out of the Y-Wing’s gunner port and watched as the stars of hyperspace blended and snapped to become the panorama of a star system. “Can you sense anything?” Rex asked her, and Ahsoka closed her eyes and reached out.

Below, on the planet, she could feel pain and despair, the typical results of a battle. And...blankness. Pure blankness, nothing but a drive to be filled with another’s will. “The 212th is still on the planet, though they haven’t noticed us.” She said, as Rex tapped into GAR Channels and began listening into radio transmissions. She reached out further, and felt a light, a bright one at that, but it seemed like it was moving somewhere, and fast-

“I have confirmation they went through with the order.”

“No.” Ahsoka gasped. Cody had...Cody had gunned down his husband. As her hand gripped the console, she felt herself feel a mix of rage and sorrow. Rex’s love for her had been enough to give him the strength to warn him, but like Jesse, love hadn’t been enough to free Cody from the order. Or maybe it had, and it hadn’t been enough to save Obi-Wan.

“Hang on...I don’t think they killed him!” Rex said, relief flooding his voice. “Helix is claiming the search for General Kenobi was inconclusive. Apparently they fired on him with several tanks, but they didn’t find a single scrap of him after.”

“That could mean anything, not all of it good, but I’ll take it.” Ahsoka groaned. “Did they say where?”

“Yeah. I can take us in, assuming they haven’t spotted us?”

“They haven’t, go.”

//

Utapau was...rocky.

Also crawling with clones, but Ahsoka and Rex were easily able to avoid them. For a man with a suit of armor as ornate as his, Rex moved as silently as a Clone Assassin, and Ahsoka was Ahsoka. Having landed the Y-Wing in a hidden cave far from the main battle zones, the duo had snuck into the ruined sinkhole city and moved towards where the 212th had been searching for Obi-Wan. 

“Did you find Kenobi?”

From their perch, a broken cliff-face, Ahsoka and Rex froze, and quietly, they peered over the side. That was _Cody’s_ voice, devoid entirely of his signature professionalism. It was blank, empty, and the answering voice was no better. “Sir, nobody could’ve survived that blast, and if he had fallen, he certainly wouldn’t have survived it either.” Said Trapper, sounding just as emotionless, and Ahsoka felt a pang in her heart at the way her Grandmaster’s men had been hollowed out.

“Damn Sith.” She muttered, slinking back down. “At the very least they don’t think Obi-Wan’s dead, so that _maybe_ makes things better?” 

“If he’s skulking around somewhere, we need to find him, and fast. Doesn’t seem like the 212th is gonna give up anytime soon, and we don’t have a ship handy for them to crash in.” Rex muttered, the black humor bringing a slight, wan smile to her face.

“Yeah, come on.” She said, and the duo ventured down the half-collapsed tunnel, making sure to not disturb even the tiniest of stones as they snuck past the oblivious battalion. Slinking down another passage, Ahsoka reached out with her senses and felt that elusive light once more, moving just down the same way as them. “This way!” She hissed at Rex, breaking into a sprint and running as silently as she could down the carved passages. Faintly, she heard engines, the sound of something flying off-

-and she and Rex rounded a corner, and saw a body, and a starship disappearing into the sky.

“It’s not him.” Rex said, coming to a stop at the broken corpse before them. “It’s not him.” He stared down at it for a moment. “Holy fuck, it’s Grievous. What’s left of him, anyways.”

“Obi-Wan’s handiwork.” Ahsoka said, noticing the sliced limbs and blast marks. “Curious that he was shot with a blaster. Something must have happened to Obi-Wan’s lightsaber.” 

“Cody didn’t have it in his possession when we were spying on him.” Rex said. “My guess is that General Kenobi lost his saber during the fight and wasn’t able to retrieve it in time, and so he made do with the _uncivilized weapon.”_

Ahsoka nodded, frowning slightly as a thought occurred to her. “So if Grievous is dead, then who was flying the ship-”

“Rex?”

Ahsoka and Rex whirled around on a dime, and there, standing before them, was a 212th trooper with familiar markings. “Boil?” Rex breathed, and the man in question removed his helmet, revealing an expression of terror.

“You...you’re not affected by it?” Boil gasped. “The...the thing that happened! One moment Cody was telling Obi-Wan he’d need his saber, and the next...the next…” Boil sobbed and fell to his knees, helmet dropping to the ground. “He had us _fire_ on his husband.” 

“Hey, hey, eyes on me.” Rex said, sliding to a stop in front of Boil. “It was a Force-damned chip inside our heads, planted there from birth. Takes over your body, makes you a tool for the Sith.” 

“...how’d you escape it, then?” Boil whispered.

“I didn’t. I fell under its sway, and then Ahsoka freed me by getting it out of my head.” Rex admitted. 

“Why aren’t you affected by the Order?” Ahsoka asked.

“Well, I took a bad hit to the head on Yerbana, but I was okay enough to deploy to Utapau, so maybe that’s it? I don’t know. All I know is that one minute Trapper and I were firing on droids and having a good laugh about the general losing his lightsaber again, and the next he was muttering something about _good soldiers following orders_ and blasting in the direction of General Kenobi.” 

“Fuck.” Rex muttered. He went to ask more questions, but then he heard footsteps. Distant, but they were getting closer. “Crap.” He said, turning towards Ahsoka. “More troops, I don’t think they’re free of the order like Boil is.”

“They’re not.” Boil said. “You have to get out of here, and fast.” 

“Our ship’s about a half-mile west.” Ahsoka said. “It’ll take time.” 

“I can distract them. They still think I’m one of them.” Boil said, his eyes hardening. “I’ll buy you time, go.”

“You don’t have to, you can come with us.” Rex said. 

“...I can’t. If there’s a chance to fight this from the inside, then I have to try.” Boil said. “Go. Now. Find General Kenobi if you can. Please.” There was a pleading edge to his voice, and after a moment’s hesitation, Rex and Ahsoka nodded.

“May the Force be with you.” She said, just as Boil turned and ran down the hallway, no doubt to intercept the squad that would’ve soon been upon them. 

“Force have mercy on us all.” Rex whispered, before he and Ahsoka moved.

“Report, soldier.” Helix-Not-Helix asked Boil, when the man had come around the corner and saluted him.

“Nothing down that way, sir.” Boil said.

“Nothing at all.”

//

Back in the safety of hyperspace, Rex sighed.

He was in the gunner seat now, Ahsoka having switched over to take over the next leg of their journey. “We’re nowhere closer to finding General Kenobi, and General Skywalker is still a bust.”

“At the very least, we know he’s alive, and that’s something.” Ahsoka said. “Still doesn’t mean we know where he went, though.”

“Coruscant? General Skywalker was stationed there before this all went south.”

“...I’m not a fan of walking into the heart of enemy territory-” And boy, was that weird, referring to Coruscant as _enemy_ territory, Ahsoka mused between words. “-but it could be done. Lots of gaps to make use of.”

“Tricks of the trade you picked up during your time walking about?” Rex asked.

“Something like that.”

//

“Well, that’s one trick I didn’t expect you to know.”

“I blame Hondo for that one. He wanted to give some of the younglings we picked up on Florrum some tricks of the…” Ahsoka trailed off, realizing that the younglings, no doubt, were dead. “...trade.” She finished, sighing softly to herself and turning back towards Rex. “Maybe this was a bad idea. Sneaking through the temple will be hard enough, but...but...you know everyone we find in there will be someone we knew, even in passing.”

“I know.” Rex said, his face grim behind his mask. He’d seen the smoke, even as far away as they’d been when they finally snuck past the military blockade and into Coruscant. “But if there’s answers, or even closure, we have to do this.” 

“For Obi-Wan and Anakin.”

“For the generals.” Said Rex, in solidarity. With that, Ahsoka gently pried open the grate, and she and Rex slipped into the temple. For the next half hour, they slipped through empty, broken passages, heading for the security tower at the top of the Temple. With any luck, they would find their answers there. As the duo meandered through blood-stained, body-laden halls, Rex couldn’t help but wince at how many of his men were here. The 501st had clearly been sent to seize the temple, and they’d done so with grim efficiency, for every dead trooper there was a dead Jedi to accompany them, broken bodies frozen in a permanent rictus of anguish, betrayal, pain.

_How had it come to this?_

Finally, after a terrifying hour spent checking every shadow for hidden surprises and taking cover at every sound that wasn’t their own, Ahsoka and Rex made it to the security tower. “I’ll go first.” Ahsoka said, drawing her sabers and hitting the door control, stepping inside and-

“Survived, you have.”

-smiling. “Master Yoda?” Ahsoka gasped, rushing over to the diminutive Jedi Master and hugging him. It was inelegant and probably not a super-fitting action for the master of the fallen order, but she didn’t care. “You’re okay! I...I thought-”

“Dead, I was? Master of the Jedi, I am. Fall so easily I will not.” Yoda said, one of his arms tapping her back in reassurance. “Few among our order still live, glad am I, to see you among their number.” A moment later, Yoda looked towards the entrance. “Out you may come, Captain Rex. Sense you, I do.”

A few seconds later, Rex, hands up in the air, stepped around the corner. “Sorry General. I was just...waiting. I can explain why I’m not shooting at you.”

“The order, resist it, you have?”

“It was a chip forcing him to do what the rest of the army carried out, Master.” Ahsoka said. “I knocked him out and got him to a medbay in time to remove it. It’s not their fault, it was-” 

“Darth Sidious...his work, this was.” Yoda said. “Glad I am, to see that you are yourself once more, Captain.”

“Thank you, sir.” Rex breathed, sighing softly.

“What are you doing here, Master?” Ahsoka asked.

“Come here with Master Kenobi, I did, to disable a beacon recalling all Jedi to Coruscant, but uncover the truth behind the attack, we also did. Alone, the clones could not have taken our temple, led by a Sith they were.” Yoda said.

“Darth Sidious?” Rex and Ahsoka asked in unison.

“No...Darth Vader.”

“...Darth Vader?” Ahsoka gasped. “W...who is he?” 

“A bright pupil was he, taken from our ranks he was. One of our brightest lights, he was, now the greatest failure, he is.” Yoda said. “Send to confront him, Master Kenobi I did.”

“Then we’re going to help him!” Ahsoka said, standing up, steel in her eyes. “Where did he go?”

“Search your feelings you must, and find Kenobi and Vader, you shall.” Yoda muttered, bowing his head. 

“What happened to General Skywalker?” Rex questioned, causing Yoda to stop in his tracks.

“Destroy him, Vader did.” Said the Grandmaster, shaking his head. “Gone, the boy Obi-Wan trained is.”

“What will you do?” Ahsoka asked, watching as the Grandmaster of the Order hobbled away.

“Confront Sidious, I shall.” Yoda declared, voice laden with grim determination. “His attention, hold I shall. Time to find Kenobi and our lost apprentice, I shall give you. Now go, Padawan.”

“I...yes, Master.” Ahsoka said.

//

“Halt!”

 _Crap._ Rex thought, skidding to a halt. Because _of course_ their luck had to run out now. Standing before him, their Y-Wing just beyond them, was Appo, and a squad of clones. Oddly enough, despite seeing Ahsoka, they hadn’t fired. Their weapons were raised, but they weren’t firing. “Appo?” Ahsoka breathed, just enough to be heard, as she stepped into the light, sabers at her hands but not ignited.

“Help us, Commander.”

“Help us.” Said another clone, one Rex didn’t recognize, but still wearing the familiar blue armor of the 501st all the same. “Help us.” Said a third.

“Sir, the...the order...it...it hurts…” Appo gasped, moving closer to Rex and Ahsoka, his blaster visibly shaking. “...it’s telling us to hurt you, but we won’t. Please sir...help us.” Behind him one of the clones dropped his blaster and grasped his head, as if he was in pain, which Rex knew he likely was.

“The temple’s medbay is destroyed, Appo.” Ahsoka said. “I...I don’t know how to help, not without the proper tools-”

And suddenly, Appo was face-to-face with her, holding his blaster out to her for her to take. “Make the pain go away, Commander, _please.”_ He begged, his body shaking.

In that instant, they both understood, and so Rex raised his blasters, and Ahsoka Appo’s, and they helped.

//

Neither spoke until they were back in space.

“...dammit.” Ahsoka said, the first to break the silence. “I can’t believe this is happening to us.” Rex simply nodded along, knowing full well what she meant.

At their request, they’d granted Appo and his squad mercy.

“...when you brought me back, the first thing I saw was my brothers attempting to kill you. And I killed them, I had no choice, Ahsoka. It was them or us, and I chose us.” He said.

“I know, Rex. I know.” Ahsoka said, turning the Y-Wing one way and closing her eyes in contemplation. 

“Where are we going?” He asked, instinctively scanning all angles with the gunner’s turret. If he had R7, or GG or Cheep, they could’ve done it for him, but the droids, like the rest of the 332nd, had died in their escape. 

“...Mustafar.”

“Mustafar?” Rex asked. “Why there?”

“I can sense Master Kenobi’s presence and...Senator Amidala’s?” Ahsoka breathed, with some trepidation in her voice. “Force, she and Anakin were close. They might know where he is.” She paused for a moment. “I’m plugging in the coordinates, it’ll be a little while before we reach them, though.” 

“Gives us time to prepare.” Rex said, as the stars transitioned into the familiar blur of hyperspace. “What are we going to do, if we find them?” 

“...I help Master Kenobi fight the Sith. You get Padmé out of harm’s way.” Ahsoka said, an edge of steel in her voice. 

“But if Vader killed the general-” Rex began.

“I have to try.” Ahsoka said. “I have to.”

_For Anakin, I have to._

//

“We’re coming up on Mustafar.”

Rex was awake at that declaration, jerking awake in the gunner’s seat and running through his mental checklist. He’d taken a little nap in the few hours between Coruscant and Mustafar, and now, it seemed like the great confrontation with this Vader was upon them. 

“I can’t sense anyone. Master Kenobi, this Vader..nobody.”

Or not. Furrowing his brow, Rex put his hands on the triggers of the turret and waited with cautious anticipation as Ahsoka flew over the planet, then picked a particular vector and dove in past blood-red clouds to reveal a mining facility, a badly damaged one at that. Landing at an isolated, shielded part of the facility, the duo quickly jumped out of the Y-Wing.

“Master Kenobi was here.” Ahsoka said, after a moment, her eyes closed. “I can sense...I sense echoes of what happened here.”

_You turned her against me!_

“Like that power that General Vos has?” Rex asked, internally wincing at his choice of words. Vos was probably dead, like almost everyone else. 

“Not quite. Whatever happened here, it was recent...and...painful. It lingers, like the scent of a meal after you eat.” Ahsoka corrected, wincing as she felt something else flow into her mind.

_You will not take her from me!_

“They’re not here.” Ahsoka said. “There was a battle here, but we’re too late.” She gestured with her head at the facility interior. “Come on, let’s look for any clues that might point us as to who came out on top.” Wordlessly, Rex drew his blasters and Ahsoka her sabers, and they carefully wandered into the buildings, passing through a saber-scarred hall.

_Welcome Lord Vader, we’ve been expecting you._

“Looks like there was a fight, a violent one.” Rex muttered, sweeping the area, half-expecting this Vader to spring out of nowhere and jump them. “If it was General Kenobi, he put up one hell of a fight.”

_The war is over, Lord Sidious promised us peace-_

“His wasn’t the only fight.” Ahsoka murmured, looking at the broken bodies that lay in the main control room. The Separatist leadership lay butchered and broken, like puppets with their strings cut. 

_Don’t make me kill you._

“So it’s true, the war really was a ploy for Sidious to take power.” Rex breathed. “He turned us against the Jedi, and Vader against the Separatists.” Ahsoka ran her hand over one of the tables and closed her eyes, nodding wordlessly. 

_I will do what I must._

Stepping cautiously out onto the walkways, Ahsoka and Rex followed it until they saw some broken pipes, and what could be described as a massive broken piece of metal. Part of the building had simply _melted,_ the other half swept away in the massive lava rivers far below them. “I don’t think we’re going to find anything else out here.” Ahsoka said, her hand touching a broken bit of railing, and running her thumb across the warm metal.

_Then you are lost!_

“So all we know is that General Kenobi fought Vader, and we’ve still no idea who won?” Rex asked.

“I think that Master Kenobi got away with his life, at the very least.” Ahsoka replied. “I didn’t sense his death in the echoes. I believe he and Vader fought each other to a stalemate, and now they’re simply not here.” She looked up into the bloody sky. “We should leave, this is a bad place.” 

“On that we agree.” Rex said, following Ahsoka a bit more quickly than usual as they made their way back to the Y-Wing, unaware of one last echo floating in the air, unheard by anyone at all.

_You were my brother, Anakin, I loved you._

//

Rex had been the one to take over the controls this time.

Right before they reached the Y-Wing, Ahsoka had collapsed to her knees, gasping in pain despite the absent of physical wounds. He’d rushed over to her and helped her up, and she’d been crying.

“Padmé’s gone.” Had been all Ahsoka had been able to say between her tears. Rex knew full well what that meant, and his heart broke a little more for the senator his General had been so fond of. He knew that General Skywalker had quite a thing for the senator, he’d been asking Rex to cover for him while he went to go say hello to her, after all. To learn she was gone...well, he understood why Ahsoka needed to “sleep it off” so to speak, within the gunner seat. Ahsoka was safely unconscious, while he was flying their Y-Wing, uncertain of where to go.

For once in his life, Rex had no idea what he was going to do next. Within the GAR, he had a purpose, but now, a fugitive from the newly-born Empire, he had no idea what to do, where to go. All he had was his gear, Ahsoka, and the Y-Wing that he was beginning to call home. He knew they couldn’t keep flying around forever, but he had not the faintest idea of where to take them.

_Tatooine._

A voice, one that sounded familiar and yet not familiar, called out to him, and after a moment’s surprise, Rex thought the concept over. Tatooine was far from the Empire’s reach, it was, after all, the Republic’s, but with way more fascism, and even they wouldn’t mess with the Hutts. It would be a safe enough place to regroup, at any rate. So he punched in the coordinates for the planet, and settled in for the ride.

Like she was coming out of a trance, Ahsoka awoke, just as the stars of hyperspace transitioned back into the more familiar, tangible galaxy. She could see two stars outside the gunner’s port, and a familiar, dusty rock somewhere far off. “Rex, why’d you take us to Tatooine?” She asked.

“I...I had a hunch.” He said, sending the Y-Wing into a soft dive and heading for the planet. “I could take us somewhere else if you want-”

“No.” Ahsoka said, as a warm, fuzzy, familiar feeling echoed through the Force. “This is...this is right, actually. Take us in at these coordinates.”

Wordlessly, Rex obeyed, flying the ship into the atmosphere and over silent, dusty oceans of sand. The warmth that Ahsoka felt only got stronger as she watched the dunes of Tatooine pass by, until-

“There!”

A building, small and unobtrusive, amidst an outcropping of hills and other such rocky constructs. Rex nodded and wordlessly flew the ship towards the hut, and down below, Ahsoka saw a single, robed figure exit the building as he found a place to land. Popping open the hatch as soon as the ship was on the ground, Ahsoka jumped out and-

“Ahsoka?”

“Master Kenobi!” She shouted joyfully, running for the man, practically jumping into his arms and hugging him fiercely. “You’re alive!” She cried, happy that at least one other member of her family had survived. “You’re alive, you’re okay...you’re okay…” She murmured, hugging her grandmaster, shaking with relief.

“I’m so happy to see you’re okay too.” Obi-Wan said, before he suddenly tensed up. Sensing the reason for his sudden distress, Ahsoka broke the hug.

“Wait wait wait!” She gasped, as Obi-Wan’s hand went to his lightsaber. “Rex isn’t one of them! I saved him from the chip making him follow the order!” 

“...chip?” Obi-Wan breathed. “You mean Cody didn’t voluntarily choose to turn?”

“Yes.” Ahsoka said. “We saw him, when we went to Utapau to try and rescue you. He wasn’t himself.” 

“It’s the inhibitor chip, General.” Rex said. “It...it brainwashed me, and all the other clones. It’s a long story, but Ahsoka freed me from it.” Obi-Wan visibly relaxed after that, and he stepped forward to give Rex a firm handshake and a pat on the back.

“Fortunately for you both, I think we have all the time in the world to share long stories.” He looked back towards the Y-Wing, and with a wave of his hand, a tarp that had been idly drifting in the calm night air flew out to cover the ship. “Come on inside, I don’t have much, but what’s mine is yours. I imagine we have much to talk about.”

“That we do.” Ahsoka and Rex said, following Obi-Wan into his hut. There, late into the night, they would share their stories, sharing tears and comforting hugs as they pieced together the tragedy that was The Fall of Anakin Skywalker. It wasn’t until the moons of Tatooine were high above, shining a faint amount of light through the windows, that Ahsoka, Rex and Obi-Wan would finally retire to bed, well, what passed as beds on the planet.

Under a thin blanket, cuddled up in each other’s arms, almost as if they were afraid the other would vanish if they let go for even a moment, Rex and Ahsoka stared out a hole in the ceiling and into the starry sky. Obi-Wan was asleep, curled up on his bed on the far side of the hut, and in any case when the silence was broken, it was done so quietly that he probably wouldn’t have heard anyways.

“...where do we go from here?” Ahsoka whispered, turning towards Rex, his face just visible in the light of the moon. His eyes flickered over to her, uncertainty shining within them.

“I don’t know.” He said. “But I imagine we’ll figure it out one day.”

//

**Author's Note:**

> And then maybe canon happens...sort of.
> 
> Because maybe, just maybe, Ahsoka might train Luke so that he's actually a decent Jedi when he shows up to go train with Yoda. 
> 
> And maybe Boil contacts Obi-Wan and helps him rescue his mind-controlled husband and the rest of the 212th because like hell are they going to leave them behind.
> 
> And maybe Rex rescues Gregor, Wolffe and any other clones he can find along the way, which there are a lot of. 
> 
> And maybe the Rebellion starts a lot earlier because there are just that many pissed off clones running around.
> 
> And maybe Yoda reveals the truth of Luke's parentage and his sibling so he faces Vader a lot more maturely and doesn't make out with Leia.
> 
> And maybe Vader realizes that the Empire is a bad idea and topples it when he chucks Palpy down a reactor shaft a lot earlier than canon, ensuring that Alderaan doesn't get Thanos-snapped and Rogue One and Kanan don't have to die.
> 
> And maybe when the New Republic rises, the First Order doesn't have to rise with it because Palpy is actually dead because you can't tell me that like a billion Force Ghosts with bones to pick with him wouldn't grab him when he attempted to yeet himself to Exegol and drag him off into the depths of the Force to totally not spend the rest of eternity using him as a pinata. 
> 
> And maybe the New Jedi Order can get off to a much better start, with the redeemed Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Luke, Leia, and Yoda at the helm.
> 
> Maybe.


End file.
